


Pieces Of You

by aewgliriel



Series: Outside The Lines [3]
Category: August: Osage County
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Romance, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-08
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 00:39:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 5,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1126309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aewgliriel/pseuds/aewgliriel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drabble collection following "Break Another Rule", chronicling Ivy and Charles' life in New York.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arrive

\--Arrive--

They rent a U-Haul for the trip, fill it with what furniture the two of them have, and after an hour, Charles manages to get Ivy's car hooked up to tow along behind them.

They're nervous, even giggly, in executing their escape. Sure, they're two grown adults, but when you've lived under your mother's thumb your whole life, it's like sudden, unbridled freedom.

Ivy drives, while Charles navigates. They get lost in Tennessee when they have to take a detour, and spend two hours going in circles until they stop and ask for directions.

But finally, after two days of driving and a night in a really scary motel in Kentucky, they arrive in New York.


	2. Adjustment

\--Adjustment--  
  
Ever since they hatched their crazy plan to run away to New York, Ivy had been putting away a little each month--okay, a lot, 'cause they lived in a small town and she didn't have a lot of places to spend her paycheck--for the Big Move.  
  
But New York's more expensive than they planned. They manage to find a tiny efficiency in a converted brownstone in Brooklyn, a one-bedroom-one-bath in the basement. For $200 more a month, they get a parking space for Ivy's car.  
  
Standing in their tiny bedroom, Ivy looks around with dismay. There's barely enough room for one dresser and their bed once they get everything moved in.  
  
"There's a real big roach in the shower," Charles says from the bathroom, and Ivy adds "hammer" to the list of things they need to buy to make the place livable.


	3. Lace

\--Lace--  
  
Ivy isn't big on dresses, never has been. She was a tomboy growing up, and pretty much her whole wardrobe consists of shirts and slacks, a few comfy pairs of jeans thrown in. She wore pants to her daddy's funeral, and owns all of one skirt. She left the ugly purple satin thing she wore to Barbara's wedding sixteen years ago back in Oklahoma.  
  
She'll be _damned_ if she'll marry Charles in slacks.  
  
She doesn't want fussy. An afternoon of shopping leaves her frustrated because she can't find what she wants. They're just going to the courthouse, nothing fancy, but it's _Charles_ , and she wants to wear something pretty for him. It doesn't have to be white, she just wants . . . special.  
  
She finds it at the Salvation Army, of all places, at the very back of a rack of dresses. Sleeveless, it's a light blue crepe with white lace over it, real simple lines and a round neck. When she tries it on, it reaches her knees. It skims her hips and makes her modest bust look a little more. And it's only $15, which is perfect for her budget. More than perfect. Maybe now she can buy some shoes to go with it.


	4. Scrape

\--Scrape--  
  
Charles manages to get a job first, as a laundromat attendant. It doesn't pay a lot, but it's enough to keep them going while Ivy applies at all the local schools.  
  
He's getting ready for his shift when she comes back from yet another interview.  
  
"I'm not qualified," she tells him, "because I don't speak Spanish. I've got a Master's in Literature, I was a professor in Oklahoma, and I can't get a job teaching middle school English because I _don't speak Spanish_."  
  
"Well, that's just stupid," he tells her. "What's one gotta do with the other?"  
  
"Lots of kids, apparently, are Hispanic around here," she sighs. "Go on to work. I gotta look into learning Spanish now."  
  
Charles kisses her gently. "It'll work out. I know it will."  
  
She wishes she had his optimism. Their savings are dwindling. If she doesn't find work, they're gonna run out of money before the end of the year.


	5. Freedom

\--Freedom--  
  
Despite their financial straights, they're happy in New York. Charles can hold Ivy's hand in public, and not one single person cares. He kisses her in full view of everyone when they spend a day in Manhattan, and no one bats an eye. There are no shocked whispers like there woulda been back home.  
  
"You miss Oklahoma?" he asks, on the train ride back to Brooklyn.  
  
"Nope." She hugs his arm and leans her head against his shoulder.  
  
"Me, neither."  
  
Charles brushes his lips against the top of her head. "When you gonna marry me?"  
  
"Whenever you want," she replies.  
  
"How 'bout Friday? Give you time to get a dress."  
  
She grins. "I already got a dress. How 'bout tomorrow?"


	6. Promise

\--Promise--  
  
There's a bit of paperwork to jump through when they go to the courthouse, given their circumstances. But Ivy's prepared, and for good measure, she provides a copy of her medical records, including the cervical cancer and hysterectomy.  
  
But it's New York, and the clerk just issues them the paper they need for the judge, not a word said contrary.  
  
Charles is a little ashamed he couldn't afford to get her an engagement ring, or a fancy wedding band. Plain old gold is all they could spring for. But Ivy, his pretty Ivy in her blue and white dress, doesn't seem to mind when he slips the ring on her finger and promises to love her and cherish her forever.  
  
His dad--'cause Charles Aiken will always be his dad, no matter what Mama claims--told him that funerals and such are just ceremony, and what matters is what's in your heart. But marrying Ivy? That don't feel like just ceremony, especially when she looks up at him and says, "I do."


	7. Seduce

\--Seduce--  
  
Ivy's washing up the dishes after dinner, because they don't have a dishwasher. Standing at the sink, scrubbing the pot, she feels Charles come up behind her.  
  
He grasps her hips, dips his head to kiss the side of her neck. "Want me to help with those, missus?"  
  
She shivers, grinning as he bumps into her, already hard against her behind. "I'm almost done," she breathes. "And this pan could use a soak."  
  
His hands inch the denim skirt up her thighs. "Good. 'Cause I got plans for you."  
  
"You do, huh?"  
  
"Mm." Charles, who always did lose his shyness in private, nips the curve of her shoulder. His long fingers find the inside of her thigh.  
  
Ivy drops the pan in the water and turns in his arms to kiss him. "Why don't you show me?"


	8. Degree

\--Degree--  
  
Ivy was the only Weston girl to stick close to home. Barbara got married and moved to Colorado, where her life's in meltdown. Karen lives in Florida with her skeeze of a fiance. Ivy was the quiet, respectable one who went to college, got a teaching degree, and never ruffled any feathers.  
  
Until she fell in love with her cousin and ran off to New York, that is.  
  
Still, it chafes that she spent so much time being good, and getting all her schooling, and she can't get a _decent_ job just 'cause she doesn't speak a language that isn't even an official one of the country they live in. She speaks some Cherokee and some Osage, shouldn't that count for something?  
  
"You could always get a job at Mickey D's," Charles tells her. "Don't you need to be a college graduate for that?"  
  
She laughs. "Charles!"  
  
Her husband grins. "Got a smile out of you, didn't I?"  
  
Mrs. Reyes upstairs takes pity on her, though, and is a better mother to the newlyweds than either of the women that birthed them. She teaches Ivy Spanish for free, in exchange for Ivy tutoring her grandson, Miguel.  
  
So maybe things aren't going quite according to plan. At least they're going.


	9. Counsel

\--Counsel--  
  
They don't want Ivy for a full-time position, she's told when she gets the call, because of her lack of Spanish. She's working on that, she tells them. They assure her that they figured she would be. They need a substitute teacher for the district, which would _probably_ see her working every day, but all over the borough.  
  
"That's fine," she says, but secretly she's a little dismayed. She likes to get to know students, not to be a transient figure in their lives. And some parts of Brooklyn are scarier than others.  
  
"Go for it," Charles tells her, when she asks him for advice. "You love teaching, an' this way you'll be doing that while you work on finding something better."  
  
"I love _you_ ," she replies. "You know that?"  
  
"Yeah, I do. But it helps to hear it."  
  
She ruffles his hair, grateful for her husband more than ever.


	10. Console

\--Console--  
  
Subbing is harder here than it was when she first started teaching back in Pawhuska, before she got the position at the college. She has to take the subway to work some days, frequently on really short notice, 'cause there are areas where she just doesn't dare take her car. She's late getting home, and Charles is already off to work, pulling a night shift at the 24-hour laundromat three blocks from their apartment. At least they get free laundry.  
  
Theirs is a safer neighbourhood, hardly ever any trouble, but as she's fixing supper, Ivy hears gunshots down the street, and sirens. Curiously, she goes out to the stoop. Mrs. Reyes in the apartment above them has a police scanner, and she's outside, as well.  
  
"Someone robbed the laundromat," the woman tells her. "Doesn't your Charles work there?"  
  
Panic has her running before she can think to lock the door. There are cop cars everywhere in the street when she gets there, and an ambulance. Oh, god, what if-  
  
"Charles!"  
  
Then she sees him, sitting on the bumper of the ambulance, speaking to an officer as an EMT examines him. Ivy shoves past the onlookers and police, and throws herself into his arms.  
  
"Shh, hey, it's okay," he tells her. "Sorry, officer, this is my wife."  
  
"When I heard, I thought . . ."  
  
"No, baby, I'm okay. Guy hit me with his gun, but I'm okay." Charles holds her tight. "I let them take the money. I didn't try to stop 'em."  
  
"Good thing," the cop tells them. "They would have killed you."  
  
Ivy shakes, and suddenly, she really misses Oklahoma. But Charles is okay, so they will be, too.


	11. Winter

\--Winter--  
  
Charles's boss blames him for the robbery, and fires him. It's completely unfair, and Ivy wants to fight it, but Charles points out that if he man don't want him there, he isn't gonna fight it, 'cause it'd just make things worse. He'll find another job.  
  
So he's working on his songwriting, on the little electronic keyboard his dad gave him a few years before, while Ivy works.  
  
Then, the first week of December, a huge snowstorm comes down from Canada and buries the city under feet of snow. It's a big surprise to everyone, and closes the schools for three days. Ivy and Charles spend those days in bed, under a pile of blankets, and they make love through the long hours while it snows and snows.  
  
Overall, she can't say she minds the illusionary solitude. It saves them on the heating, after all.


	12. Christmas

\--Christmas--  
  
With Charles out of work, they can't afford much of a Christmas. It's the first time either's spent the holiday away from the family, but they don't mind. Charles is happy to be away from his mother, and Ivy, well . . . After the way she and her mother left things, and with her daddy gone, she doesn't want to see Violet Weston now or ever.  
  
Charles finds a twelve-inch plastic tree at a dollar store and surprises Ivy with it. Cheap holiday ribbon wrapped around it, it's the only holiday decor they've managed outside of a handful of Christmas ornaments Ivy brought from Pawhuska because she couldn't bear to part with them. They don't have room for a real-sized tree, fake or otherwise, in their tiny apartment. So the ornaments hang from more ribbon strung across the small window in their living room.  
  
When Miguel brings them a plate of his grandmother's cookies, he sees their sad decorations and brings them a string of lights. He's a sweet kid, barely fourteen, with an avid interest in music. Charles offers to teach him to play the piano, and the boy's face lights from within.  
  
Ivy gives Charles some notebooks and some blank sheet music, for his songwriting. He gives her a battered, leather-bound, 1925 edition of Sherlock Holmes he found in a thrift store.  
  
"Not worth much, really, given its condition, but-"  
  
She cuts him off with a kiss. "It's perfect, Charles. Merry Christmas."


	13. Curve

\--Curve--  
  
He knows she could do a lot better than him. But Charles is just selfish enough that he's glad she didn't, that she's _his_. Ivy's the only one, besides his dad, who's ever believed in him.  
  
He lies awake at night, sometimes, thinking about this, while Ivy sleeps beside him. Trailing his fingers over the dips and curves of her body, wondering still how he got so lucky, after all the times he's struck out in his life.  
  
"I don't deserve you," he whispers.  
  
"Yes, you do," she mumbles, and he realises she's awake. "Now shush and go back to sleep."  
  
Charles chuckles and pulls her close. "Yes, ma'am."


	14. Ravish

\--Ravish--  
  
She comes home from a day spent corralling young teenagers and kicks off her shoes. Charles watches from the bedroom door as she pulls the pins from her hair.  
  
"What?" she asks, when she finds him staring.  
  
"You're beautiful."  
  
"No, I'm not," she laughs. She knows she's got a round face, and too many freckles, and she's too skinny.  
  
"Yes, you are."  
  
Charles kicks the door shut and grabs her. Ivy makes a pleased sound, a little surprised by his sudden aggression.  
  
"What's gotten into you?" she asks, when he hauls her to the bed.  
  
"Sometimes, I look at you, and I just wanna . . ." He grinds his hips against hers.  
  
Ivy catches her breath. "Any time you 'wanna'," she murmurs, "you go right ahead."  
  
He wants to rip her clothes off, but that would be a waste. Still, he hurries through, and she giggles at his eagerness. When she grasps his erection, small fingers tight around his length, he shudders and gasps.  
  
Charles digs his fingers into her hair and kisses her hungrily, bearing her backwards on the bed. He thrusts into her wet heat, and she arches beneath him with a breathless cry against his mouth.  
  
Sometimes, he really likes being the dominant one.


	15. Entreat

\--Entreat--  
  
For a while, Charles uses the internet at the public library to keep in sporadic contact with his father. Charlie Aiken is the only one who knows where they are, though they haven't told him that they're married. When Ivy starts helping Miguel with his schooling, Mrs. Reyes and her daughter let the newlyweds borrow their internet connection.  
  
Ivy's in the middle of helping Miguel with his weekly vocabulary worksheet when Charles makes a pained noise across the small living room, where her laptop is set up.  
  
"What is it?" she asks.  
  
"Uh . . ." Charles looks at Miguel. "Could you give us a minute, Miguel?"  
  
The boy looks at his watch and says, "It's time for dinner, anyway. I gotta go. Thanks for the help, Mrs. A!"  
  
When Miguel is gone, Ivy goes to join Charles at the computer. "What's up?"  
  
He points at the screen. "Dad says your mama's in the hospital. He doesn't . . . think she's gonna make it through the week. He wants us to come back, just in case."  
  
It's only been six months since Beverly Weston died. Real fitting that Violet would choose to go close to Valentine's.  
  
Ivy doesn't want to go.  
  
Charles adds, "Dad says he'll buy our tickets, pick us up in Tulsa."  
  
Ivy says, "Shit."


	16. Lines

\--Lines--  
  
Ivy and Charles each only pack enough to get them through a day or two. If they have to, they'll do laundry at the house.  
  
Waiting at the airport to board the plane, Ivy says, "I don't wanna go."  
  
"It's your mama," Charles points out.  
  
"Yeah, an' the last thing she said to me was . . . Well. You know."  
  
He nods. He does know. "Yeah."  
  
The flight lasts an interminable four hours, ice on the runway in Oklahoma delaying their landing. Ivy's grateful for the stall. She still doesn't know what she'll say to Violet, if anything. Charlie said she was pretty much drugged into a coma, last they heard.  
  
She spins Charles's wedding ring around his finger. "We gonna tell 'em?" she asks. "Or keep lying?"  
  
"Dunno yet," he says honestly. He looks at their rings, the lines of gold encircling their fingers. "Let's see how Dad reacts, first."


	17. Secret

\--Secret--  
  
Charlie picks them up at the airport, as promised. He may not be a complicated man, but he's a perceptive one sometimes. He takes one look at their body language, sees the rings, and says, "Don't tell Mattie Fae, she'll have one of her fits."  
  
They slip off their rings, and Ivy puts them on a chain around her neck, under her sweater. The warm metal hangs just above her heart.  
  
"I don't understand it," Charlie admits, when they're in the car, "but as long as you're happy, I don't care one way or the other. Woulda been nice to be there, though."  
  
"It was just us, at the courthouse," Charles tells him. "You're the only one who knows."  
  
"Don't you worry, I'll keep it to myself."


	18. Names

\--Names--  
  
The staff at the hospital are familiar with Ivy's presence, though it's been a while. When Dr. Burke addresses her as "Miss Weston", she doesn't bother to correct him.  
  
Barbara's flown in from Boulder City, and Karen's back from Miami. They both greet Charles as "Little Charles". No one's called him that since they left for New York, and Ivy can tell it bothers him.  
  
But neither says a word. They know who they are, which is all that really matters. Here, they're just playing roles. They can live with it for a little while.  
  
"I hear you really did run off to New York," Barbara says. "Are you and Li- Charles still together?"  
  
She smiles mirthlessly. "You could say that."


	19. Goodbye

\--Goodbye--  
  
Violet's in a coma when Ivy gets to the hospital. She never wakes. She'd tried to overdose when the pain got too bad, the doctor says, but she didn't quite succeed. All they do now is wait.  
  
Even though she's still angry, a little, at her mother, it hurts Ivy that the last thing she said to Violet was to call her a monster. That wasn't what she'd choose to have her last words be, though she wouldn't take it back.  
  
"I'm sorry, Mom," she says at last.  
  
Violet dies two days later. Ivy cries in Charles's arms.  
  
At least she got to say goodbye.


	20. Truth

\--Truth--  
  
"C'mon, Little Charles, you might as well come stay with us," Mattie Fae says, as she and Charlie prepare to leave the hospital.  
  
"No. Charles is staying at the house, with me." Ivy's done being walked on.  
  
Her aunt tips her head in confusion. "Whatever for?"  
  
"Maybe because he's my husband."  
  
The whole room goes silent.  
  
"But- but he's your _brother_ ," Mattie Fae blurts.  
  
Charlie finally speaks up, and turns a glare on his wife. "The hell he is! C'mon, now, Mattie Fae, what is wrong with you? Why do you gotta keep tryin' to wreck that boy and his happiness?"  
  
Mattie Fae looks around the room at all the faces, and figures she might as well be out with it. "I never told you, but I had an affair with Beverly. _He's_ Charles's father."  
  
"That's horseshit," Charlie says, and shakes his head. "I know about you and Bev, Mattie Fae. Always did. But this is _my_ boy. He's the spitting image of my daddy when he was Charles's age, which you'd _know_ if you'd bothered to pay any attention to _my_ family instead of just talk down about 'em."  
  
Mattie Fae blinks rapidly. "But-"  
  
"Besides," Ivy says quietly, "Charles an' I can't have children. I had a hysterectomy a while back. So what does it matter?"  
  
Unable to form a response, Mattie Fae blusters wordlessly, then storms out.  
  
"Sorry," Uncle Charlie offers, and he, too, leaves.  
  
Karen breaks the silence. "You're married?! We need cake!"  
  
"Not right now," Barbara says.


	21. Boxes

\--Boxes--  
  
The sisters go to pick out a casket for their mother. Karen, flighty Karen, wants the red one with the gold trim. Barbara wants black and chrome. Ivy doesn't care, and stares off into space while her younger and older sisters bicker.  
  
"Ivy?"  
  
She snaps to attention at the sound of Barbara's voice. "What?"  
  
"You okay?"  
  
"Fine. Fine." She nods. "Yeah. Fine."  
  
Her sister obviously doesn't believe her. "I'm glad you came."  
  
"Are you?"  
  
"Of course I am! Are you still mad about-"  
  
Ivy narrows her eyes at her sister. "Yes. Yes, I am still mad. Let's go with the black one. I'm getting a headache."


	22. Melancholy

\--Melancholy--  
  
They bury Violet Weston next to her husband Beverly. The funeral dinner at the house is markedly different this time, with no angry outbursts, no mocking words. Mattie Fae pretends not to notice that Ivy and Charles hold hands through most of the meal.  
  
Later, after Charlie and Mattie Fae have gone, Ivy goes around the house and untapes the shades. Karen joins her and they silently pull down the masking tape. Some of it's been there so long, it's coming unstuck all by itself.  
  
"I see you're not wearing a ring," Ivy says quietly. "Things not work out with Steve?"  
  
Karen wads up the tape in her hand. "I should have listened to Jean. That bastard. You know what he did? Got himself arrested for raping a sixteen-year-old."  
  
"I'm sorry." There isn't a lot Ivy can say to that.  
  
Her little sister tosses the tape on the floor. "I need a drink."  
  
"I think I'll join you."  
  
Barbara comes in for a spell, joins them in having a glass of wine. Charles turns off the TV, offers to excuse himself, but Ivy grabs his hand, and they sit together on the sofa.  
  
No one says anything, to Violet's memory or otherwise.


	23. Mistake

\--Mistake--  
  
Lying in bed together, in her old room, Charles traces a finger over the scar low on her belly.  
  
"You ever regret goin' for the surgery?" he asks. "Instead of doing chemo?"  
  
"Sometimes," she whispers."But there's no guarantee I could have been able to have babies even then. And it can't come back this way. We talked about this, Charles, remember?"  
  
He presses his face against her shoulder. "I know. An' I know it was the right decision, I just . . . Even if genetics make it so we couldn't, or _shouldn't_ . . ."  
  
He flattens his hand over her abdomen. "I wish I coulda seen you, y'know? Carrying."  
  
"I know." She rolls into his arms, twines herself around him. "Technically, we could do a surrogate, I've still got my ovaries, but . . ."  
  
"Yeah." Charles sighs. "Too many risks. And we don't have the money for that."  
  
"We might, with my part of the inheritance, but . . . maybe it'd be better put towards adopting or something."  
  
He runs his fingers through her hair. The natural wave is coming in at her roots; she'll need to straighten it again or let it grow. "That's somethin' to think about," he says finally.  
  
Long after he's asleep, Ivy lays her hand on her belly, and wonders.


	24. Relief

\--Relief--  
  
Violet never got around to changing the wills, like she'd claimed she was going to. A third of everything went to each of the girls, except the house. The house went to Ivy.  
  
". . . Oh," is all she can say when the lawyer tells them this. "Why would . . .?"  
  
"According to your mother," he says, looking at them over his half-rim glasses, "'Barbara has a house in Colorado, and Karen's got a nice place in Miami. I want Ivy to have somewhere so she doesn't have to live in that tiny apartment forever'."  
  
Ivy snorts a laugh that has little amusement in it. "She always did want me to move back in. Free help."  
  
"But you're in New York now," Barbara starts, then pauses. She glances at the lawyer. "I guess you're not gonna move back here."  
  
"No," Ivy says firmly. "Definitely not. Did you want the house?"  
  
Her sister shrugs. "I'm getting the house from Bill."  
  
"So you're going through with it, huh? I'm sorry."  
  
Karen hops in her seat. "Did you want to sell the house, Ivy? I don't want it. I could help you sell it."  
  
Ivy shrugs, looks at Charles, sitting so quietly beside her.  
  
"It's your decision," he tells her softly. "I got no attachment to it. An' we could use the money."  
  
"I need to think," she says finally.  
  
"Of course," the lawyer agrees. "No rush. You will, of course, get copies of all relevant documents, and you'll each get your share of the liquid assets."  
  
He hands them summaries of their shares, and Ivy can't help but gape.  
  
Violet had said "some money". Ivy had never expected her parents to be sitting on _that_ much.


	25. Solitaire

\--Solitaire--  
  
That night, the girls go through Violet's jewelry, to divide it up.  
  
Karen, naturally, wants the flashier pieces. Most of Violet's jewelry was just costume stuff. The good stuff she'd kept in the safety deposit box she'd made such a fuss about.  
  
Ivy holds her mother's large diamond ring in her fingers, turning it this way and that. It sparkles brilliantly, looking unreal.  
  
"You should have that," Karen says. She reaches over and taps the plain gold band on Ivy's finger. "Sell it and get something nice."  
  
She hastily puts the ring down. "I don't know . . ."  
  
Barbara watches in silence. After a long moment, she says, "You should. At the very least, Mom would have made fun of your ring. And if you sell _hers_ to get something better . . ."  
  
Ivy snorts. "Now who's cynical?"  
  
Her older sister shrugs. "Bill and I are divorced. I'm pretty cynical about everything right now."  
  
Slowly, Ivy picks up the ring she'd discarded. Maybe . . . something simple?


	26. Decisions

\--Decisions--  
  
They fly back to New York a few days after the funeral. She and Charles had discussed it, and left most of the money in trust with his father. His parents would never spend it, and Ivy is hesitant to rush into anything.  
  
"It's more money than I've ever seen," she whispers to Charles as they lie in bed the night after the will reading.  
  
"We should be careful with it," he says. "With our troubles in New York . . ."  
  
"We could buy a nice condo," Ivy muses. "If I sell the house here. Put most of the money away, just in case."  
  
"So you wanna sell?"  
  
She draws little hearts on his chest with a fingertip. "I don't wanna come back. No point in living somewhere our marriage is illegal, and there's no point just having it sit."  
  
Charles catches her hand, kisses her palm and weaves his fingers between hers. "An' there'd always be talk if we came back."  
  
"Yeah. That, too. Even if your dad's right about . . . that whole thing."  
  
"We could find out, now."  
  
Ivy sighs. "Right now, I really don't care enough."  
  
"Okay. So let's sell the house, get a better place in New York."  
  
"Okay."


	27. Valentine

\--Valentine--  
  
They get back to the city just in time for Valentine's Day. They have no reservations for any restaurants, since that was an expense they couldn't afford before. But Charles buys her chocolates, and orders them delivery from a nearby Italian place. He queues up a playlist on the computer of love songs, surprises her with an admittedly-cheap bottle of wine and candlelight. Not real candlelight, but battery operated ones he got at the dollar store.  
  
"Oh, Charles," she says, when she sees what he's done.  
  
"You like it?"  
  
"I love it. You are so good to me."  
  
He grabs her around the waist, pulling her close. "I know I can't support you, not . . . like a husband should. But-"  
  
"Hey. We're already untraditional. You can be the house-husband, I'll be the breadwinner."  
  
Charles laughs under his breath. "Okay. As long as you don't mind about the occasional broken dish. I'm clumsy."  
  
Ivy has a flashback to that last argument with Mama, when they threw dishes, screamed at each other, and Violet claimed Charles, her beloved Charles, was- She gives herself a shake.  
  
"I don't mind," she whispers. "I'll have you any way I can get you."  
  
Charles turns her under his arm, as Sinatra croons.


	28. Games

\--Games--  
  
They take up a weekly game night with the Reyes family, where they haul their stack of board games upstairs and everyone gathers around the table for what usually ends up as really silly competition.  
  
Miguel is brilliant at Monopoly. Charles excels at Trivial Pursuit. Ivy's game is Scrabble. Most of the time, Mrs. Reyes just watches, and half of the time, her daughter, Miguel's mother, is at work.  
  
Tonight, it's Clue, and Mrs. Reyes has joined them. She's playing Mrs. Peacock. Charles as Professor Plum, and Ivy has Miss Scarlet. Miguel dithers for a while before choosing Colonel Mustard.  
  
"Why don't you have the Big Bang Theory version?" he asks. "This is, like, old. Not even old school."  
  
"This was mine when I was a kid," Charles tells him. "Back in 1983."  
  
Still, he enjoys the game, and wins. The teen bounces around the apartment, crowing his victory.  
  
"I was off by one," Charles says with a sigh. "I thought it was the pipe, not the revolver."  
  
Ivy says, "So did I."


	29. Bricks

\--Bricks--

Ivy doesn't tell Charles, but she starts looking at houses in the general area. She wants somewhere safer than Brooklyn, somewhere they don't have gangs running up and down the street. She knows that everywhere's getting more dangerous, but they're only a couple blocks from some really scary places.

And she's started thinking about the future. The idea of adopting's nestled in the back of her brain and won't let go, though she hasn't brought it up since that night in Oklahoma.

What they can afford depends on how much they sell the house in Pawhuska for, but it's a nice chunk of land out there. Karen claims she's working on getting it sold.

Then Charles catches her looking at listings online.

"A house, huh?" he asks affably.

"Thinking about it. And not in Manhattan. Maybe outside the city."

"Something solid," he says. "Bricks or something. Not this prefab plasterboard crap they build outta these days."

Ivy nods. "So we wanna do it? Buy a house?"

"Sure. Maybe . . . somewhere with a library for you, an' a studio for me?" Then he goes wistful, just a little, and trails off.

"And maybe a nursery?" she finds herself saying. "You know. If we adopt."

He smiles, but doesn't reply.


	30. Offer

\--Offer--  
  
Mid-April, Karen calls and says there's a movie studio that's looking at buying the house for a production.  
  
"The guy I talked to sounded real excited about it!" Karen tells Ivy breathlessly. "An' he says they'll tack on another ten thousand if they can have the furniture, too!"  
  
"What, no arguing about the price?" Ivy asks her sister.  
  
"Nope! They did say that if there are any heirlooms you want, you can take 'em, but they love the house the way it is."  
  
Ivy turns, looks at Charles. "I already got everything I wanted out of the house. Dad's books, stuff like that. Charlie and Mattie Fae are storing all that stuff in Charles's old bedroom. Far as I'm concerned, they can have all the rest."  
  
When she hangs up, Charles asks, "What?"  
  
"We've got an offer on the house. For ten over what Karen listed it for, 'cause they want the furniture."  
  
"Who the hell wants all that junk?" her husband asks.  
  
"Some movie production, I guess."  
  
"No haggling on the price?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Go for it. We're not gonna get better."


	31. Pink

\--Pink--  
  
Karen arranges a meeting between Ivy and the producers in New York. With the potential sale a few days away, Ivy and Charles begin seriously looking at houses. They meet with a realtor and she shows them around.  
  
"Now, this one is really more of a starter, but it'll be a big improvement over your current situation," the woman says.  
  
Ivy nods. It's nice, and there's two floors, nearly four times as much space as she and Charles have now.  
  
"Ivy?" Charles calls from the upstairs.  
  
"What?"  
  
He peers around the corner and down the stairs. "All the bathrooms are done in pink tile."  
  
Ivy arches a brow at the realtor.  
  
"Oh, yes, the previous owner was fond of pink."  
  
"And there are mirrors on the ceiling in the master bedroom," Charles adds.  
  
". . . No," Ivy says, "I don't think this is the one for us."


	32. Home

\--Home--

Ivy meets with the producers, and signs the papers to sell the house in Pawhuska. By the end of the afternoon, she has a check in hand for nearly half a million dollars.

Charles stares at the check. "Y'know, for this, we could get so many nice places," he says. "Just . . . outside the city."

"You wanna do that?"

"I want outta Brooklyn," he says.

So they start looking in White Plains, in Mt. Vernon, places outside New York City.

It's Charles that finds it, a pretty little four-bedroom house with green shutters, built turn of the 20th century but with modern renovations. It's got bay windows in the living room and master bedroom, and the cellar's actually finished and not creepy like all the others. And there's an actual garage, one they don't have to pay extra for.

Most touching to them, however, is the stain glass window beside the front door, depicting ivy of all things.

"We'll take it," she says to the realtor. "It's perfect."


	33. Kinship

\--Kinship--  
  
Karen flies up from Miami to see the new place. She's more subdued than Ivy's seen her in a while, but she enthuses over the house.  
  
"It's just so _you_!" the youngest Weston girl tells Ivy.  
  
"Charles found it," Ivy tells her sister.  
  
"Speaking of _our cousin_ . . ." Karen regards her with narrowed brown eyes. "Are you really happy, Ivy?"  
  
"Yes," Ivy says. "For the first time ever, I'm really happy."  
  
"Good."  
  
They have dinner to celebrate, dining out bescause the house is full of boxes. Ivy's relieved to not have to pay for storage anymore, and the house has plenty of room for all their stuff. They just have to unpack it.  
  
"So what are you doing now?" Karen asks at dinner.  
  
"I was a sub for the school district, but we're in a different area now," Ivy replies. "I'll need to apply to new schools."  
  
"What about you?" Charles asks Karen. "I'm real sorry about Steve."  
  
"Yeah, well. I shoulda listened to Barbara."  
  
At the end of the evening, after Karen goes back to her hotel, Ivy turns to Charles. "I'm glad _I_ didn't listen to Barbara."  
  
"Why's that?" he asks as he pulls her close.  
  
"She told me to dump you."  
  
"Not to be a jerk or anything, here, but there's a reason she's divorced and we're happy, isn't there?"  
  
She can't agree more.


End file.
